Breaking the Ice
by NumerousInterests
Summary: On the journey back from Duellist Kingdom, Kaiba is forced to make an emergency landing. Mai takes the gang to explore, leaving Seto and Yugi some time for vague conversation. (Rivalshipping One Shot)


After a not so graceful landing, (accentuated further by screams and flailing in the back, and Jounouchi's reaching for and shaking Seto by the throat) Kaiba, dusting himself down in exasperation, rung up his Recovery Service. The man on the other end of the line assured him they'd be located and assisted as soon as possible.

Kaiba snapped the mobile shut, and Yugi flinched as the snide billionaire glared at their swaying companions. Even the hot-heads Katsuya and Kujaku, and the defensive Mazaki were all too nauseous to regard his condemning look or to shoot anything verbally back at him.

"How long will it take for them to find us?" Yugi panted, plopping down onto the grass. Kaiba turned, still squeezing a shaky Mokuba's hand.

"Couple of hours, at least." He huffed.

"Aww, c'mon." Jounouchi groaned, "I want to be home already."

"We could've been in the ocean with you grabbing me the way you did back there, you dangerous lunatic-"

Mai swiftly interjected, "Kaiba, where the hell are we?"

"I don't know. The monitor's broken."

"Our company's back-ups' are real efficient though," Mokuba piped up, wiping his nose on a sleeve, "They'll be picking us up in no time, right Seto?"

Kaiba nodded, letting him go.

After about an hour and a half of restlessness and Seto related tensions, Mai proposed heading out toward signs of civilisation to pinpoint their location, and bring back something to eat.

With the scowling, teen CEO adamant on sitting by the helicopter, everyone was suddenly keen to accompany her, except for Mokuba and Yugi.

"I'll ring you if back-up comes." Yugi smiled, waving his cell. Mai winked at him, and made an comic, flourishing gesture for her group to follow.

As the party drew out of sight, Yugi turned back to the haphazardly-planted chopper. Mokuba had retreated inside, and through the window Mutou could see him absorbed in a handheld game.

Kaiba was on the steps, fiddling with a packet. Yugi titled his head to one side with wide crimson eyes, as the other duelist obliviously ignited a cigarette and drew on it deeply.

Kaiba exhaled suddenly, startled by his rival's presence.

"I didn't know you smoked." The shorter boy remarked.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes, "I don't."

"But you're-"

"A temporary habit I picked up on the island. Out of stress."

"Right..."

"I can stop at any time I want." The brunette finished quickly.

Yugi eyed the smoking paper between Seto's fingers but didn't pursue the topic. He remained standing and rubbed an elbow as the CEO looked pointedly away from him, to mechanically keep the nicotine coming in and the smoke coming out.

The sky was looking flushed and shadows were starting to climb, as Yugi shifted from one leg to the other. He scratched and coughed.

Then he started playing with the chain about his neck, and the low, chinking sound of this activity finally wrested back Seto's sullen attention. He snapped at the fidgeting blonde to sit down, beside him.

Yugi hadn't expected Kaiba to break the ice with his own reluctant curiosity.

"How did you win?"

"Against Pegasus, you mean?" A big smile played on Yugi's features, "Me and the other me worked together. We switched minds!"

Seto tapped the end of his cigarette as his cheery schoolmate elaborated:

"We just kept switching back and forth, so that he never had to time to read either of us. Even when he could, we didn't know what card the other had selected. We just had to have faith that we were always preparing good strategies for one another in advance."

"So your approach really wasn't all that different to mine." Kaiba sighed, vapours curling from his mouth as his smaller counterpart blinked.

"You mean the bit about blindly picking up cards, so he couldn't predict them?"

"Mmm. That and the consistent mind swapping; not too unlike my concept of the duel disk working as a barrier."

"...I think the mind swap was different."

"Hmph."

"I'm... Not discrediting your idea," Yugi said after a moment's pause, eliciting a sideways glance from his competitor, "I'm sure it would've worked. I mean, Pegasus himself must have thought so, why else would he have threatened to have Mokuba throw it for him?"

A beating in the air and the swaying trees ahead momentarily had their attention. They both paused with bated breath for sounds of an approaching aircraft or copter. They were disappointed.

Seto slumped back into his previous position and Yugi jumped at the audible receival of a text.

He read the message quickly and gulped. Kaiba arched a brow as Mutou slowly swivelled round to inquire carefully:

"Do you... like hotdogs?"

Seto looked slightly appalled. "What."

"Mai's asking if we want some. She seems open to other suggestions-"

"I'll take literally anything else, anything that's even remotely palatable. Coffee, if in doubt."

Mokuba made a loud request for ketchup and mustard from the cockpit.

Yugi assented with a laugh and Kaiba went moodily back to smoking, as if in grim reflection of his younger sibling's declining tastebuds.

Kaiba's lips pursed when Yugi started humming and swinging his legs. But just out of Mutou's view the cobalt eyes were staring, and the methodical puffing had ceased. Yugi leaned back and closed his eyes to the approaching darkness of wherever they were, grinning softly.

"This is nice, isn't it?"

Seto dropped the source of his tobacco, treading it contemplatively underfoot.

"Nice being stranded?" The CEO eventually snorted.

"Sitting here and thinking, with a bit of vague conversation here and there... It's nice." Mutou reiterated in a faraway manner, starting to drift away for real, "I wish we could do it again, without other things getting in the way..."

Kaiba shook him gently. Yugi, stirring from the land of nod, raised an arm, still adjusting to the bright lights, the beating wind and the roar of Recovery Units suspended in the air.

"They're here." Seto murmured, "And Mokuba's stirring-"

"Hey, wait up you guys!"

"Jounouchi..." Mutou waved half-dazedly at his friends in the night, all loaded with miscellaneous purchases from their venture.

"Sorry we're so late!" Kujaku hollered above the commotion, blonde tresses whipped up into a frenzy about her features, "We got carried away sightseeing... and very lost."

"Honda got us lost." Bakura laughed, causing said schoolmate to flush and shout something inaudible to defend himself. The Recovery Units landed efficiently nearby, and their pilots clambered out to direct the duelists, along with their friends and relations, into one of the helicopters.

A yawning Yugi was the last about to hop in after Anzu. Kaiba with a sleeping Mokuba in his arms was talking to the second pilot, who took the smaller Kaiba gently from Seto into the second helicoptor. The elder Kaiba, standing with suitcase in hand, glanced indirectly at the vessel of his Duelling opponent.

"That contraption will drop you and your lot back in Domino."

"Y-you're going back separately, Kaiba?"

"Yes."

"Oh... Well, um, thank you for the previous ride."

Kaiba grunted, hurriedly sliding the helicopter door shut behind him.

Yugi gazed after him, before a tap on the shoulder brought him to his senses. He shivered his way inside, wrapping his arms about himself for warmth.

It was then he noticed Kaiba's trenchcoat draped about his shoulders.


End file.
